December's Goals & Intentions
Recently I’ve been reflecting on how quickly the months seem to be passing me by, and I get to the end of the month with a bigger to-do list than when I started.
I’ve decided to share my monthly goals and intentions with you in the hopes that I can hold myself accountable and actually achieve them.
These posts are going to be incredibly open and honest, and I’m going to be very vulnerable in them. I hope that in doing these posts that other people will relate and feel less alone, but also that I’m met with understanding and little judgement.
I do know that sharing private and vulnerable posts on the internet for the entire world to see can be a terrible idea, and I could be opening myself up for a lot of negativity which certainly isn’t the intention. I hope, fingers crossed, that you wonderful readers and subscribers will meet me with love.
Each of these monthly posts will be split into 6 sections. These 6 sections are the main categories from my Simple & Calm course which is being released in January 2023, and I’m super excited! If you’d like to know more about that, then keep an eye on your inbox on Sunday 4th December as I’m releasing a post all about the course and how you can join.
Shall we start? Deep breath, here goes…
Personal Life & Health:
I’d like to read more books this month. At least one. I received a big bunch of books for my birthday back in July, and I’ve only read one of them so far which is terrible for me.
As I progress further into my pregnancy, I’m getting all sorts of aches and pains. I really want to start moving more which is difficult when I work from home at a desk all day. I subscribe to The Body Coach App by Joe Wicks which has just released its very first series of pregnancy safe workouts, and I’m really enjoying them. I want to keep this up throughout December, but also walk more. We spend a lot of time as a family walking and exploring at the weekends, so I want to keep this up as much as I comfortably can.
The Christmas holidays are approaching, meaning my lovely quiet house is going to be upturned before long. I’d like to spend some time alone before the kids break up from school on the 16th. This will prepare me for the inevitable noise and chaos that I’m not used to for 2 weeks. I’m making it sound like I’m dreading my children breaking up for Christmas, and I promise I’m not. I love being alone, and just thrive off of my own company and silence, and so I struggle during the holidays when I have less time for myself. Although, my husband will be off too so I’ll be able to make time for myself more than I would in the big summer holidays.
Work Life:
I don’t really class it as work because it’s actually been a wonderful creative outlet for me, but I’d really love to spend more time writing here on Substack. So far I’m managing to keep up to my one post a week, and I think that’s because I’m really enjoying myself. I love writing and I want to keep this up in December.
I’m currently preparing for the launch of my new Simple & Calm course. I’m busy writing all of the posts and creating the workbooks which I am absolutely loving right now, because I’ve been so passionate about teaching it for years. The course will be hosted here on Substack and students (paid subscribers) will receive a module each week to work through and complete. As students work through the course, they’ll learn to live a simple and calm life. To find out more, read THIS POST with all the details, including how to enrol.
As I prepare for my maternity leave in early 2023, I’ve slowly been switching my physical prints that I sell on my Etsy shop, into digital downloads. That way, I can still sell my designs but there’ll be nothing physical to pack and ship until I return to work in September. I need to keep making progress on this throughout December.
My diary is quickly filling up with festive activities and school plays, so I’d like to wind down my work from the middle of the month so that I can spend time with my little family. Being self employed is tricky at this time of year because if you don’t work, you don’t earn. I really want to take a lot of time off over the Christmas season, but financially I won’t be able to.
Finances:
Ok, so this is where I get a little bit vulnerable. I’m going to talk about my finances which is completely un-British of me, but incredibly important because A) it’s going to hold me accountable to actually take action, and B) because I hope that it helps motivate other people who are in debt to start to think about tackling it too.
Current debt: £13,979.79 (the largest being the car finance, with £2208.16 being what we owe in credit cards and loans).
Plan of action: I really want to pay the credit cards and loan off before 2023 so that we have less debt repayments while I’m on maternity leave (leaving just the car finance to pay). The plan for December is to pay £1000 off of that debt total. Any extra money I earn in December will be put towards debt repayments.
I’ve been trying new ways to make money throughout November which I plan on keeping up in December.
Firstly, I’ve sold a lot of our unwanted clothes, shoes and accessories on Vinted which has earned me £50 so far.
I’ve been using cash back sites when buying Christmas shopping such as Top Cashback where I’ve made £48.58. If you sign up via my referral link, you’ll receive a £10 bonus!
I’ve been using a survey app called Attapoll where I get paid for completing surveys. My aim is to make at least £2 a day which would equal over £60 a month. So far, I’ve earned £6 and only been doing it for 2 days. If you sign up using my referral link (and enter my unique referral code: iprnv if asked to), then you’ll receive 40p straight to your account.
I’m also using the ‘round up’ feature on my bank where they automatically round up my spends to the nearest pound, and transfer the rest to my savings account ( £1.50 spend would be rounded up to £2 and 50p would be transferred into my savings account). Check with your bank to see if they do something similar. I’ve saved £26.41 in November just with this feature alone.
And I’m still using Chip which is a savings app which automatically takes money out of my bank and puts it into my Chip savings account without me knowing. I use my Chip savings throughout the year to budget for Christmas, so this year has been lovely to have money set aside to buy presents without having to use the credit card. I’m incredibly proud of myself for that!
Home Life & Possessions:
Christmas time always brings with it a lot of clutter. I live in a minimal house and so the Christmas decorations can be overbearing at times. As long as I keep the house tidy, I can cope with the extra ‘stuff’ in the house. I currently follow The Organised Mum Method which recommends spending no more than 30 minutes per day cleaning to keep on top of the housework. It really works and so I’d like to keep this up throughout December (as much as I can with having 2 children off school with new toys).
I love this time of year for getting organised and preparing for the year ahead. In December I always spend a few hours filing away any paperwork, or school creations, shredding any private documents, and getting ready for a new year with an empty desk. I find it so refreshing to start the new year with a clean slate.
Technology & Social Media:
As well as filing away my physical paperwork and documents, I also back up all of my digital photos, videos and documents from my phone and computer onto my hard drive. It’s a good opportunity to go through the photos and delete any that I really don’t want to keep. It’s like getting a brand new phone every year ready to make new memories.
I love having a creative day and taking photos for my Instagram account and Substack. I like to spend a full day doing this as it can be quite messy with all the props and moving of furniture. One day of that is enough for me. Then I can spend a few days editing (I use Lightroom) and tweaking the photos ready to use.
The Christmas period can get quite hectic for me, and when this happens, social media tends to be the first ball I drop. This year I really want to plan my social media content in advance for the month using Later. This way I’m hoping I can be more consistent and post regularly. Although, I’m still only posting photos and not Reels so I have no idea how much of my audience is actually seeing my posts.
Family & Relationships:
During December I always struggle with the demands of visiting family and friends before Christmas. I find these sorts of get togethers exhausting and overwhelming, so I’m planning on saying no a lot this December.
I want to spend lots of time together with my little family throughout December, just us 4. It’s very rare that we get to spend any prolonged length of time together as a family, so I really want to treasure the Christmas break this year, and make lots of memories.
Keeping up with the school messages is a full time job in itself, and so this December I’ll be attending all the Christmas plays and activities at school. I do love this though. This is exactly why I became self employed in the first place, so I could attend all of these special dates and plays. I’m feeling very lucky to be able to pick my working hours, and attend these shows.
And that sums up my goals and intentions for December. The last month of 2022 is certainly going to be an unforgettable chapter. I hope that by sharing my goals and intentions that I have inspired you to think of how you’ll spend this last part of the year.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and feedback on the goals that I have shared, and let me know yours too!